Sunday, December 26, 2010

The 700 Club

700 articles, who would of "thunk" it when BRT started out almost four years ago as an attempt to intelligently discuss the impact of science and technology on civilization but here we are, still attracted to the subject matter as strongly as a moth to light on a warm summer night, a benign curse we willingly accept without reservation as we enter yet another new year filled with the same promise and uncertainty as all others, conditions never changing yet always changing, driven by the quantum, the law of initial conditions and the 2nd law of thermodynamics, principles discovered by researchers trying to better understand the vagaries of a most mysterious reality in which we all live.

In looking back, here are some of the things we've learned.

Everything is connected. Reality consists of the transfer of information using the laws of thermodynamics to make it happen.

Tech has no morality but we already knew that.

Man is touching the very fabric of reality using tools that did not exist one year ago.

As Kevin Kelly says, tech has been around forever and ... the web enables tech to evolve faster.

We live in a fractal space; from tree branching and heart beats to galaxies in the multiverse, the hidden dimension of fractals rule.

Nature abhors gradients.

Transparency is key to having a free society that works. As proof, see how the web works, a chaotic system totally reliant on transparency for without it, the construct would fail without question.

The Internet is the last bastion of freedom we have.

Religion and nationalism are not great. Read Dawkins and Hitchens to learn why.

Connecting the dots is the right way to learn.

Question everything for without it, one never learns anything.

What we don't know dwarfs what we do. Just walk on the shore and look out at the ocean to see why.

Following one's instinct, especially if fleeting, is an essential part of survival.

Fear is a good thing when put in proper perspective.

Creativity is everywhere, never to be restricted to the arts, something one learns if one has an open mind to it all.

Never quit. It sounds trite but no advancement on any front is ever easy, Just ask the Einsteins of the world to see why.

Questioning is hard, acceptance is easy.

We live in a world of great invisibility as everything we interact with has a past unable to be seen.

The future cannot be predicted due to chaos, quantum and the law of initial conditions.

Because of the above, sh*t happens, always.

Energy drives reality as without it, everything stops.

The multiverse lives. (thank you Hugh Everett)

We all live in Pottersville, for now, a situation needing to be changed if America is to survive.

There is no free lunch - ever.

Creativity is the art of play.

Research, in significant parts, is the art of farting around.

The discipline shapes the creative act, instinct, compulsion and the ability to connect seemingly dissimilar concepts in playful fashion makes it happen.

Walking is the art of controlled falling.

Reality is mostly dark.

Life is the great exception to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

Great ideas occur simultaneously based on individual output.

Writing is hard but so is any significant endeavor requiring skill, intelligence and perseverance,

The US does not encourage excellence, something needing to be changed if we are to survive as a viable nation in the 21st century.

The political, corporate and financial systems in the US are broken but fixable. The question is, are we up to the task to do the fixing.

Health beats money any day,

Humor is key to life as are family & friends. Without these essentials, we have nothing.